Photograph by Ed Pollard, Sony a7R II 2024.

The Stone Sculptor (Construction de l’Opéra de Paris, Frise en chantier), from Charles Garnier, Le Nouvel Opéra de Paris

Artist Delmaet et Durandelle (French, 1862 - 1890)

Artist Louis-Emile Durandelle (French, 1839-1917)

CultureFrench

Dateca. 1868

MediumAlbumen print from collodion negative

Dimensions14 5/8 × 11 in. (37.1 × 27.9 cm)
Overall, Mat: 24 × 21 in. (61 × 53.3 cm)
Overall, Frame (estimated): 25 5/8 × 21 1/4 × 1 1/4 in. (65.1 × 54 × 3.2 cm)

PortfolioLe Nouvel Opéra de Paris: Sculpture ornementale (1876)

Credit LineMuseum purchase, in memory of Ann and Sol B. Frank

Object number2020.19.3

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 228

DescriptionThis is an albumen print from a wet plate negative depicting a row of sculpted works with a man carving the works at the far end.
Label TextLouis-Émile Durandelle French, 1839–1917 The Stone Sculptor (Construction of the Paris Opera, Frieze Under Construction), ca. 1864–68, from Charles Garnier, Le Nouvel Opéra de Paris (Paris, 1876) Albumen print from collodion negative Museum purchase, in memory of Ann and Sol B. Frank 2020.19.3 Louis-Émile Durandelle was one of the earliest photographers to focus exclusively on architecture. Commissioned by architect Charles Garnier, he published four albums of more than a hundred views of the new Opéra, the crown jewel of the emperor’s overhaul of Paris. Garnier aimed to document the process of inventionand fabrication, not the finished building, providing designers and craftworkers with a source book for decorative details in the tradition of engraved pattern books. ProvenanceFrom Galerie Texbraun to Alex Novak/Vintage Works, Ltd. Purchased from Vintage Works, Ltd. by Chrysler Museum of Art, September 2020.Exhibition History"New Frames of Reference: Early French Photographers at Home and Abroad," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va, gallery 228, September 5, 2024 - February 16, 2025.